Let HIM work!

Why is it that we tend to think … when things don’t go the way we think they should … that God needs our help?  That, somehow, He must be confused and must not “get it”.  He obviously needs us to step in and redirect Him.

This was what stood out to me as I read through the passages in my plan this week.  That included Exodus 12 – 18, Psalms 62 – 68, and 1 Samuel 13 – 19, but the particular section that grabbed my attention is found in 1 Samuel 13 (verses 7b – 14).  The Israelites had begged for a king, like the nations around them (most of which, interestingly, were their enemies), and finally the Lord allowed Saul to be selected.  At the very start of his reign, God enabled the Israelites to successfully battle the Philistines, destroying them in overwhelming fashion.  This only served to enrage the Philistines, creating a burning motivation for them to attack and defeat the Israelites.  Israel starts to lose confidence in the battle and its warriors begin to flee and hide.

We pick it up midway through verse 7 …

Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear.  Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away.  So he demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.  Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, but Samuel said, “What is this you have done?”  Saul replied, “I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle.   So I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s help!’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.”  “How foolish!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.   But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Talk about a major flame-out!  Saul is king for an incredibly short time and fumbles his blessing from God away.  Before we get too terribly judgmental of him in this situation, let’s evaluate what happened a little more.

What was so wrong with Saul’s actions?  Seemingly, nothing when you consider that all he did was try to care for his warriors, made a sacrifice to the Lord, and as he said, he realized he hadn’t “even asked for the Lord’s help!”  It seems like a reasonable set of actions given what was going on, and probably seems to us like what we would have done under the same circumstances.

EXCEPT …

Just after Saul was anointed king, Samuel gave him a very clear set of instructions (1 Samuel 10:8) for once Saul arrives in Gilgal.  Those instructions specifically entailed waiting on God’s prophets, listening for God’s leading, and for Saul to “Then go down to Gilgal ahead of me. I will join you there to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. You must wait for seven days until I arrive and give you further instructions.”

These instructions in chapter 10 were not very far separated from what happened in chapter 13, time-wise.  But nevertheless, Saul did what a lot of us do when things don’t go the way we assume they will, or the way we think they should.  We panic.  We assume God isn’t paying attention.  We figure He must not be able to handle things the way we know they need to be handled.  Clearly if He would just ask us, we could tell Him what He needs to do.

We rationalize our actions … like Saul did.  He said, “my men were all running away from the battle.  I needed to do something to stop them.”  Or, “hey, Samuel, you were late … you didn’t get here when you told me you would.”  Or, “Samuel, you were going to come and make the sacrifices … but the Philistines were getting staged for battle and someone needed to do the sacrifice, even though you are a priest and are the only rightful person to do the sacrifice.”

We talk to God in the same way.  We say, “God, things aren’t going how I want them to, so I’m going to jump in and make sure I change things.”  Or, “God, I prayed about this, and You’re not answering yet.  You must not be listening … I can’t wait any longer … it’s time for me to act without you.”  Or, “God, if I just pray a certain way, or do certain things, you sort of owe me,” like Saul was basically saying when he willy-nilly threw together a sacrifice so that God would sort of be like a genie in a bottle … doing the sacrifice is like rubbing the bottle, with God obligated to grant your wishes.

What’s wrong with these points of view?

First, God has a plan that doesn’t have to and rarely ever does correspond to our plan.  But, His plan is always way better than ours.  Just because the Israelites were dismayed and running away didn’t mean that God wouldn’t serve the Philistines into Saul’s hands.  In fact, it could very well have been exactly the way God wanted to show Saul His power … by defeating the Philistines (again) on behalf of the Israelites.  Saul stepping in robbed God of the ability to possibly supernaturally deliver the Philistines into the Israelites’ hands.

Second, just because God hasn’t answered YET, doesn’t mean He’s not going to answer EVER.  As the saying goes, God is rarely on time, but He is NEVER late.  His timing is not our timing, but His timing is perfect.  We just have to allow Him time to let His plan develop in the way He intends for it to.

Finally, God doesn’t want us to pray in certain ways, and He certainly doesn’t want us to do something in exchange for Him to do something … in the extreme, that’s called extortion.  God wants our faithfulness, surrender, obedience and trust.  He’s not obligated to do awesome things for us because of and in exchange for these things, but our lives tend to align better to His plan when we do.

The problem is, just like Saul, we get in the way.  When God doesn’t act in predictable ways or ways that we (in our, er, infinite wisdom) expect He should, our natural reaction is to jump in and “help.”

God doesn’t need our help.  We just need to let Him work.  Give him time and let His plan carry out.  The best we can do is get in the way of what He is trying to do.  We mess it up, like someone that walks right in front of you when you’re trying to take a picture.

Let’s seek out God’s help in prayer this week, to ask Him for the strength, fortitude and trust in all things, but particularly let’s ask Him to identify areas where we are jumping in to “help” Him, where we’d be better off trusting the outcome He intends, in the time He intends it, in the way He lets it get carried out.

Praising God for you!

MR